September i, 192 i] 



NATURE 



21 



everything. They think it quite right and ad- 

 visable to make scientific men "obedient" execu- 

 tors of the commands of the Soviet Government. 



During the last three years the " Palace of 

 Science " registered the names of 420 Russian 

 professors and scientific men who died from 

 starvation. These are not occasional sad events; 

 they constitute something regular, systematic. 

 Letters which I have received from my friends 

 and colleagues — Russian scholars — give a vivid 

 picture of life under Bolshevism. For obvious 

 reasons I cannot give the names of my 

 correspondents. 



"These two and a half years," writes Prof. X, 

 "have been a continuous nightmare. The Bolshevists 

 declare us to be parasites and drones, and we have 

 been deprived even of the scanty ration allowed to work- 

 men and soldiers. Those of us — and not many were 

 so lucky — who had any spare garments or possessions 

 sold them in order to buy food. Those who had 

 nothing sold their books, and that was the most 

 terrible. ..." 



A professor of philosophy writes : — 



It is easier for me than for others to understand 

 Bolshevism. In it is something wild, something of 

 the Russian recklessness. The experiments of the 

 Bolshevists remind me of the Eastern mountain 

 tribes ; in the life of such tribes blood-revenge is 

 closely connected with primitive communism. I am 

 rather interested in the Bolshevists, impartially, as a 

 philosopher should be. I do not mind the water 

 freezing in my room, that instead of bread and meat 

 I eat raw oats, or that one can write and create in 

 Soviet Russia only during the summer months. But 

 there is one thing which makes me despise the Soviet 

 Government, and that is their endless lying. 



"No, I and the Bolshevists cannot understand 

 each other," writes the Moscow Prof. W. "I, an 

 old man, who can scarcely walk, whose feet, on 

 account of the cold winter, are sore and swollen, am 

 kept in solitary confinement. May God forgive them ; 

 they have their own convictions ; I am not angry 

 with them, but why do they try to frighten me bv 

 stupid examinations? Yesterday I was again taken 

 to be examined. . . . They cannot understand that 

 one can be devoted to science without caring for 

 politics; no, they cannot understand that." 



Not until 1920, after many eminent Russian 

 men of science had perished, did the Bolshevists 

 establish a so-called " science-ration." But even 

 this ration was repeatedly reduced and some- 

 times entirely stopped. 



What is the attitude of scientific men towards 

 the Bolshevists? This is a very complicated 

 question. If we put aside the personal grievances 

 which ever\one now has owing to the grave econo- 

 mic situation, and consider the question from its 

 logical side, we shall see how complicated it is. 

 For example, there is Prof. Gredeskul, who urges 

 the intellif^entsia to join the Communist party ; 

 there is Prof. Behtereff, who declares that all 

 Russian men of science now abroad should return 

 to Russia ; there is Prof. Pavloff , the declared 

 anti-Bolshevist. As a general rule, learned men 

 are not Communists ; only a few of them have 

 joined the party : Pokrovsky, the late Prof. 



NO. 2705, VOL. 108] 



Timiriazeff, Gredeskul. I am unable to find any 

 other scientific men who would sav " we Com- 

 munists." A few Communists may be found 

 amongst the young laboratory and lecture-room 

 assistants, but all of them are quite unknown to 

 the outside world ; they have no scientific or 

 public standing. The main body of Russian 

 learned men is openly opposed to the Bolshevists 

 — of course, among them are various shades of 

 opinion, very interesting and characteristic. 



Another group of savants, amone them many 

 prominent men, hold the view that they must 

 defend the interests of pure science. 



As Russian citizens, when we are outside our labora- 

 tories and universities, we say : " Down with the 

 Bolshevists ! " They have brought only damage and 

 shame to Russia, and can bring nothing else. But as 

 scientific workers we have another grievance. Rus- 

 sian science, that part of culture which belongs to the 

 whole of humanity, must be saved from annihilation. 

 We, the servants of science, must do all in our power 

 to preserve her in Russia, to save the lives of Russian 

 men of science, to reawaken her creative power in 

 our country. We must, for the sake of science, make 

 concessions to the Bolshevists ; they appoint their 

 commissaries to our laboratories and institutions — we 

 must not object to this measure ; they put us under 

 a military regime — we must accept even this. We 

 believe, we knovv-, that Bolshevism will soon pass ; 

 meanwhile, we will do our best to preserve the eternal 

 human culture. We believe that scientific work is 

 quite possible under Bolshevism, in spite of the Bol- 

 shevists. 



They did believe in this, but now their belief 

 is Avaning, though they are still ready to accept 

 any kind of compromise in order to preserve 

 science and scientific institutions. To this group 

 belong the academicians Oldenburg, Fiersman, 

 Behtereff, Prof. Tarasevitch, Lasareff, Rojdest- 

 vensky, and many others. 



Then there is the last group of Russian men of 

 science, which embarrasses the other Russian 

 scientific workers. These say : — 



We are far removed from politics. W^e do not 

 believe in the Bolshevists ; we do not consider them 

 to be either idealists or revolutionaries ; we consider 

 them as men who seized the State power by main 

 force and now are willing to govern the country 

 by force. They suppress every movement towards 

 freedom ; they cannot endure any independence apart 

 from themselves, because they are afraid that the 

 freedom and independence of the people will ruin 

 Bolshevism. W^e do not believe in the Bolshevists. 

 We were witnesses of the appeal of Lenin to the intel- 

 lectuals when he asked them to collaborate with the 

 Bolshevists. That was a year ago. But what did 

 Lenin mean by "collaboration "? To be his lackeys? 

 To carry out his orders? We were witnesses that this 

 same Lenin, who in April asked the intellectuals to 

 collaborate, in May shot many hundreds, and even 

 thousands, of educated people. Why? 



No, we do not believe in the Bolshevists. 



Such is the theory and the practice of the *' pro- 

 letarisation of science " : in theory — the peaceful 

 reorganisation of science ; in practice — its destruc- 

 tion, its exploitation for political purposes. 



At this stage of Russian life two principles are 



